As a (minor) contributor to and user of DrawKit, I would like to second the recommendation that anyone interested in vector graphics on the Mac give it a look. It is powerful and flexible and with the right UI wrapper could indeed become a challenge to Illustrator on the Mac.
Right now, documentation is a bit lacking, but due to the self-documenting nature of Cocoa, DrawKit is not impossible to get into. In the short term, I'd recommend perusing the mailing list archives. The list has been quite active as of late, and many of your questions might be answered there. The author, Graham Cox, is very responsive and has a strong grasp on the mathematical and graphics fundamentals behind this. For example, in response to a question about drawing optimization he wrote two solutions to the Traveling Salesman Problem in a few days.
At SonoPlot, we based the CAD layout program for our robotic fluid dispensers on DrawKit. We're releasing the code for that application under the BSD license (source for a beta is available right now as well as a binary). Unfortunately, we do not yet have a support page up for this at our main site, so I'll have to refer you to the mailing list archives for more information. Even though this is an application-specific program, it should provide yet another example of the power of the framework.
by Brad Larson — Aug 17
Right now, documentation is a bit lacking, but due to the self-documenting nature of Cocoa, DrawKit is not impossible to get into. In the short term, I'd recommend perusing the mailing list archives. The list has been quite active as of late, and many of your questions might be answered there. The author, Graham Cox, is very responsive and has a strong grasp on the mathematical and graphics fundamentals behind this. For example, in response to a question about drawing optimization he wrote two solutions to the Traveling Salesman Problem in a few days.
At SonoPlot, we based the CAD layout program for our robotic fluid dispensers on DrawKit. We're releasing the code for that application under the BSD license (source for a beta is available right now as well as a binary). Unfortunately, we do not yet have a support page up for this at our main site, so I'll have to refer you to the mailing list archives for more information. Even though this is an application-specific program, it should provide yet another example of the power of the framework.